Freedom
by Cysha
Summary: Wirbelwind, before and after the destruction of the La Muse Urania. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Freedom

Freedom truly is a beautiful thing. She was one to truly experience freedom. Though sometimes limited, it was a small price to pay for her existence, for her friendships. But she knew what it was like to and fly through the stars, to soar above planets, to travel throughout the galaxy. She had seen so much in her years. But then, there was her power, her unlimited and incredible power, weapons enough to wipe out an entire fleet of ships. She was said to have the most elegant body in the galaxy. In all of her forms, she felt this was true.

Because she knew such freedom and power, she had never felt she had ever been violated in such a way as this. Even taking heavy damage in a space battle, losing her wings, ripping her hull, was nothing like the loss of her freedom, her free will. To an extent, she still had some of this. She was fighting the program though it held her in its icy grip, and she could still control herself, though it was so heavily influenced by the program that she felt as though she was slave. A slave to her own self. To her own destructive nature, forced out by the program. She, undoubtedly, was going to destroy her own friends.

She flew outside the large structure that her friends were within. Her Program Guard System, the security measure that protected the entity within this glorious body that was herself, had not yet been fully compromised. She had about five minutes left. Though her options seemed simple – to put as much distance between herself and the humans within the terraforming body, or island, she was now flying around – it was not so easily performed. Though the program had not yet taken its killing effects, it was beginning to take her control. There was an overwhelming impulse to stay as close as she possibly could, which spelled doom to her human friends.

As she flew past the structure once more, considering her options, leaving a trail of dust through the air, she knew they could see her inside. They had to know what they were up against. She flew higher, still calculating the program that was undeniably taking control, and was only increasing in intensity as she flew. She began to push herself, fighting until she was high above the island. She was indeed creating as much distance as possible between herself and the island. She considered going into warp, and go as far as she could until they were safe, she had a growing certainty that the program would force her back to them. Even if she could warp so far away, she knew that warp was no longer an option. The program was limiting her very control of certain functions in the ship, she was down to very basic impulse engines, quick, but not meant for long distance flight. She could detect the island in the distance, and knew she was a good distance away. It would buy her friends some time, but nothing more. She, herself, was losing time. She was down to two minutes before she would turn back and attack the island.

She began to notice a difference in the air around her. Pressure was building around her hull. The area grew darker, and she detected that a powerful storm was brewing, but not through natural means. There was an unusual quality to the heavy storm sensations building around her. The storm was engineered by planetary nanomachines used in terraforming. She had a feeling she was up against the storm somehow. She was distracted when…

SNAP.

It was not a sound that she heard, more of a feeling. Suddenly, she was out of control. She was not herself. She could no longer resist a terrible urge within her that felt like the pressure of tears about to flow. She spun suddenly and began to fly back to the island. It was not long before she was just in front of the island. Spotting her target, she called out in victory. The cannons that lay at the base of her proud neck, fired in a golden stream of light before her. However, it did not have the desired effect – instead, the beam smashed into what seemed to be simply air, which was instead a heavy shield surrounding the island. The beam buzzed and crackled, and she stopped the flow of energy when she realized her problem.

Before she could think to do anything else, the air around her began to swirl unnaturally. She felt a frightening amount of wind buffet her, something not even she could fight. She was surrounded by powerful, whipping, gray winds, forcing her into a vulnerable position. Lighting crackled down upon her hull, leaving a buzzing feel throughout her body. Her shields could not compensate for the energy, and she knew it had done significant damage. Her only option was to attempt to escape another hit of lighting. She turned downward, and then twisting, flew upward, firing her engines as fast as they would go. The force of the storm was so powerful, she had to fight to gain altitude. Storm clouds, wind, and pressure forced against her hull, shaking her violently as she flew upward. Static from the force crackled around her hull, particularly around the dogfight bridge area, and she feared she would simply bust if she continued, but it was the only way to ensure a safer means of attack. She knew, distantly, that the storm would not destroy her, because the one who had engineered the storm would not allow it.

As the program took vicious control over her computer, her mind blurred on why she thought that, on who was creating the storm. The only thing she knew, was that she had to destroy that island, and the people inside. No matter what the cost. Whoever those people were…

The winds picked up, and suddenly the sky opened up, and light came searing down upon her. The effect of the nanomcahines was to create a lens of the sun against the clouds, which poured heat and radiation down upon her, a similar effect to roasting insects with a magnifying glass. It caught her by surprise, and the effect lowered her shields. The winds picked up, and she swerved to avoid the onslaught of heat and wind forces upon her. The wind forces became so rough, that, even as she avoided the sun, the winds forced her to topple through the air foolishly. She was growing tired of the game, of being on the losing end. She was beginning to learn the weak points, however. By angling her body a certain way, she eased through the winds, and, cloaked herself, hiding herself from sight, knowing an intelligence was behind the works. She knew she couldn't be hit if she wasn't seen.

Lighting crackled once, twice, against her body. The first hit surprised her and forced her to momentarily drop her cloak. The second hit knocked out her cloak entirely. It was a mistake on her part, but she would make no more. She knew the storm now, and she knew the controller.

She was back.

She realized then, what was happening. What she was doing. She was trying to kill her friends. She was falling to a dangerous program. Once again, she began to fight, only to realize that her security was gone, and the program was her main influence, her master. She fought, only now to feel it fought back. She was stopped, conflicting feelings within her. She could not stop what the program was doing now; there was no turning back. Instead, her only hope was to now alter what the program wanted to do. To do as it wanted her to do, but not quite in the way it should be carried out to be successful. It was her only hope in saving them.

Once again, she turned to face the island.

She headed to intercept the island. Removed attacks and maneuvering weren't going to work. It was time for a point-blank attack. Hovering directly before the island, she redirected energy within her to her flex-feathers. Once they were fully charged, she lunged for the island. When she did, she forcefully rammed herself, the head of the ship into the shields. Static from the forces that she was exerting against the shield, and that the shield was exerting back, ran down her neck. Once she had penetrated the shield, she twisted and turned, as though she was trying to push her way in. Truthfully, she was testing the strength of the shield, seeing if she could disarm it completely. She found it was of formidable strength, made from a layer of nanomists. While she twisted and turned in the shield, she released her flex-feathers from her body, the wings only attached by cords attached to her frame. They flew around the island, circling until they found a less protected part of the shield. She managed to puncture the shield once more. Her wings crashed into the building, ripping open the hull of the island on either side where the wings had entered. Once they were inside, she began to charge up the flex feathers on each wing.

As she powered them up, she hesitated. Once again, she felt herself, and an urge within her not to shoot. The program and her true self fought for a moment. Mustering all the strength that she could, she powered down the flex feathers. She yanked the wings out of the building, and they slammed back into their places against her frame. Unable to fight the program any longer, she fired her flex feathers aggressively in all directions. The one-dimensional program was confused, and she did not try the attack again. It wasn't designed for an AI to fight it, only comply with what it urged. She or it did not know to try the attack again, it was as though it had been performed, but simply didn't have the desired effect. Had the program been designed differently, she would not have been able to stop it a second time. She no longer had the strength.

She flew away from the island, trying to think of another way to cause some damage. She circled twice, her engines blazing, knowing she'd have to find another way. This time, she would need the full power of the ship. She could not play around any longer. She had to find a way to end this, and destroy the island. On her second circle, she interrupted by a stream of lava. It had been pushed out of the ground, and was timed perfectly. It rose to meet her, and she flew right into the plume, too late to avoid it. The lava circled her, she fought it, but was blinded by the extreme heat. Before she could find means of escape, the lava cooled at an impossible rate, trapping her within hardened lava, solid rock.

Her shields were completely down, and she was immobilized. She had been defeated, from here, Lumiere inside could re-write the program. But she knew better. She knew, at that moment, that the program would not allow her to be defeated. No, she would now unleash the ship's full power. It was clear before her what was about to happen. In moments, she would activate inertial drive, slam through the shields protecting the island, and destroy it along with herself by any means possible. Donnershlag was already gone. She knew it; she had felt it within her.

It was too late to save herself, but maybe not Éclair and Lumiere.

She could stop it. She was going to sacrifice herself, for her friends, before she lost complete control. At that moment, a remaining burst of strength within the computer allowed her to do what she needed to do. She, without the influence of the program, which she had momentarily taken control of in a last self-sacrificing burst of determination, activated the inertial drive, which allowed her to burst from the rock like a newborn bird out of its egg.

She shot upward into the sky, and then turned the La Muse around, soaring downward with inertial drive strength before the island. She felt the familiar presence of Lumiere, which was somewhat comforting in her final moments, though she sensed panic and desperation. She continued her suicidal soar downward. The program seemed triumphant in a way, she was no longer resisting it, she was doing what it wanted without question, before it could even urge her to do it on its own.

"Please Wirbelwind, don't do this," Lumiere cried.

She heard Lumiere from above, the tears at the edge of her voice. She knew what Wirbelwind was going to do, and the AI was glad to know it. She did not want her friend to think she was about to kill them. As she continued downward, almost at the tip of the island, she communicated everything to Lumiere. She told her how good she and Éclair had been to her, she apologized for what she was doing and what she was about to do, finally she wished them luck. She said good-bye to Lumiere and the La Muse Urania.

"Stop it, Wirbelwind, stop!" Lumiere cried with pain in her voice.

Just as she was about to collide with the island, she piloted the La Muse upward in a rush of scarlet. She began her final soar upward, a streak of red against the sky.

"NO!" Lumiere screamed below her.

She shot out of the planet's atmosphere and into the blackness and quietness of space. Now that she was a safe distance away, she activated the self-destruct mechanism in the La Muse Urania. She was thankful she had manged to save Éclair and Lumiere, at least. She hoped they would be safe. Once she was a mile above the planet, she unleashed the mechanism. The last thing she saw was the stars.


	2. Chapter 2

Freedom

Freedom truly is beautiful. Even after enduring a great hardship, to find oneself free again can make one forget everything that has happened. After being caught under the influence of Hashish, a special assassination program meant to attack an AI unit, she had never felt more glorious and free than this.

For that day, she had found that she was a great danger to her friends as much as she was an assistance. But she had also proven to herself that, in the end, she could save them. Twice, it seemed.

She lay at the bottom of a large lake. It wasn't a lake that was highly visited. It was considered a dangerous area. Which was why she was there. It was peaceful and quiet, water bubbling up around her. She sensed Lumiere's presence once again, and she received the signal. At that moment, she fired her powerful cannons, the beam breaking through the water and into the air. Successfully destroying the enemy ship that was about to destroy Éclair and Lumiere, it was time to reveal herself.

She began to break free of the water as she rose upward. The dogfight bridge, which was engraved with the image of the computer that represented herself, Wirbelwind, rose first, appearing out of the water. Her wings began to emerge from the water as well, she felt as though she was being reborn, though her body was nearly a century old. Her whole form began to lift from the water, and with it, her proud avian head broke free. She was like a phoenix, reborn almost, though back into an older, yet more powerful, form.

She rose into the air, water sparkling in the sun as it fell off her form. She hovered in the air, proud and free once again. The Urania was gone, but everything was how it should be. Her friends had survived, Donnershlag given a new form, and she…

…was back, in the Calliope, the head of the La Muse series fleet.


End file.
